Redemption Through Sin: Darkness vs Chaos
Rip! Was the sound that exploded as demonic flesh and blood scattered across a red stained colosseum battlefield. On the highest balcony stood the youngest general of Hell, eyes narrowed and arms folded. Two warriors were left in a battle royal, and one had just ripped out the shoulder of the other. The demon raised its claws to finish its opponent, but for the briefest of seconds was lost in the fear in its oppoenents eyes. It soon shook out of the trance and plunged into the throat of its adversary, looking up at the balcony and grinning as it awaited praise from its master. But the young warlord wasn't in the balcony at all, but suddenly right behind the demon. "Mmmmaaassttter!" It hissed, cursing between words. "Hh-have I pppp-pleeeeased yyyoooou?" It said nervously but proudly, its serpentine tongue flickering in and out. "So you didn't notice you're mistake then." muttered Echo rhetorically. "W-wwhatt???!!!" Echo closed his eyes and sighed indifferently. "Your eyes spell out your cowardice, for a moment your sympathy for a former comrad cried out. "S-sso? Innnn ttthhe eeennnd, thhheee mmoootthhher fff******er's stiiiilll dddeeead!!!" Pleaded the underworlder. "Enough." Echo placed his hand on the chest of the creature and it quickly lost all color in its skin, black veins surfacing all over its body and face. It choked feebly before falling over, lost to a corruption beyond the aspects of physical evil. Echo's actions were more personal than he would dare admit, his recent cases of mercy had been causing more trouble than aid, and caused him to lose the favor of Satan, and whether he liked it or not, that would come in handy. But he had to admit, his punishment with Asmodeus had brought valuable experience in willpower and endurance, as well as unlocking some very powerful dormant abilities. He turned and walked away towards Lucifer's palace, giving a command with his fingers to the surviving soldiers to prepare for pain endurance training. When he opened the door, Lilith waited at the steps. "Hello, Echo, heard that Satan wished to speak with you after his month of silence?" asked Lilith. "I had a feeling." He mumbled, focused on something else. "You okay?" asked Lilith. Echo frowned. "I know what he needs me for, and I won't make the same mistake again, or ever." His clear blue eyes were empty as always, but their recently gained compassion had died. "Before you see Satan, and he says it's not urgent, you wish to..." said Lilith, not needing to say what she is implieing. "Why am I surprised." he sighed. "You know most people just read a book or get a pet when they're bored." He couldn't help a slight smirk. "Yeah, but a book can't pleasure you and if you use a pet, then you are nothing but a sicko," laughed Lilith. For a moment Echo wondered if Lilith had ever used an anima-...Nah. "Touche'." He replied, caressing her cheek gently, not using the hand he corrupted the demon with out of sheer caution of habit. "Screw books." He said bluntly. She then grabbed his hand. "So, how do you want it?" "Surprise me, besides, you need to be in the spotlight every once in a while." said Echo, popping his neck. "Well, alright," giggled Lilith. Two Hours Later "Well, that was fun," huffed Lilith, she laid ontop of Echo with sweat dripping from him, and both their sweat wetting the bed. "Mhmm, way better than a pet I'm sure." said Echo with a smile, his breath returning. "True, Echo, that is true...well, maybe you should speak with Satan now, even when he says that it is not urgent, he doesn't want to wait forever," said Lilith as she got off and started to put on her clothes. Echo narrowed his eyes and his smile dissappeared, he knew what his mission was. "Probably." He sat up and stretched. Lilith got dressed and tossed Echo his clothes. "Maybe if you live, we could do it again," said Lilith with a smile. "Cross your fingers then." He said, raising an eyebrow as he finished dressing by throwing on his overcoat. Echo followed Lilith down the stairs and stood in front of the pedestal, when all of a sudden... "ECHOOOOOOOO!!" Echo turned around and was hugged by a 10-year old demoness, who nuzzled on him. Echo attempted to shift away, feeling uncomfortable the way she clinched onto him. "Have we met?" He said, eyes widened. Naamah looked at him and cried. "Sis, he doesn't like me!" she cried. "Naamah, if you convert him, then I won't be happy!" yelled Lilith. He wanted to say something, but somehow couldn't. He instead blinked in confusion, oblivious to what their words meant. "But YOU keep on saying how good he is, and I want to ride him too!" yelled Naamah. "No means no, Naamah!" said Lilith sternly. "Lilith thinks I'm good...Pretty impressive out of a few million." He shook his head, an elementary school aged girl wanted to "ride" him. "...Okay." He managed to conjure. "Why don't you ask him...mister Echo, do you wish to ride this little lady?" asked Naamah. "How old are you?!" He asked, shocked yet still with a trace of indifference. "Ten," she replied. "Over twenty billion," said Lilith. "Shut up, ya old hag!" hissed Naamah. "No thank you." He smirked, patting her on the head. "I think I'll just stick to your sis', she's more...my type." said Echo, trying not to make the demoness cry again. Naamah then kicked Echo in the groin and ran away crying. "Ha, way to go!" laughed Lilith. Echo's eyes widened and watered before his legs collapsed from underneath him. Refusing to lose composure he drew his sword while falling, plunging it's tip into the ground and balancing on it in a feeble attempt to keep his seriousness. But his involuntary wimpering made it all in vain. "...Why do I do this." He gasped. Lilith giggled and she opened the way to Satan's door... Satanic Hatred He put the pain in the back of his mind and continued forward, tensing his muscles instinctively. Echo walked to the door and stopped when he felt the terror in him. The door opened a bit, revealing Satan's eye. "Echo...so good to see you...done spilling your seeds in a barren wasteland?" growled Satan. "It's proper to adapt to the customs of a foreign land when staying there, I just do my part." said the black haired general, folding his arms. "Hm, a month of hard punishment and torture has done little to hold your insignificant tongue, I am displeased, I even have thought once or twice to kill you, thinking you are deadweight..." said Satan. "Sometimes pawns are best left untouched, even if just for the sake of numbers." replied Echo. "And I was under the impression that I had already clarified my loyalty." "Your impression...thought wrong," said Satan, "But, you may recieve your trust again, if you do this small favor for me..." "Of course." sighed Echo. "Finish the mission you neglected to finish, the last one I ever gave you, do this, and your trust with me...has been restored," said Satan. Echo gave a brief nod. "Is that all?" he said, ready to begin. "That is all, but Echo...if you fail me again, Akiko will suffer with you," warned Satan. Echo had already turned around, stalking out of the room and focused on the task at hand. Echo saw that Devin was in front of him. "So, when will you be done with serving that giant blowhard?" asked Devin. "As soon as I can kill my compassion." spoke Echo, pausing for a moment. "And you?" "Because Satan is going to do something...really stupid...and I have to make sure I can stop it before that happens," replied Devin, "Or perhaps I have turned pure evil, I don't really know anymore, Echo..." "I suggest that you find out before you're forced into a decision you can't make." said Echo, letting the self-relavence of his words sink in. "Echo, compassion does not weigh or lift us, it is what gives us a reason, just choose who you give the reason too," said Devin, he then walked away, entering a red portal. The young host of chaos sighed and glanced around, wondering what method of finding his target was he to use. Lilith then teleported in front of Echo and kissed him hard. Echo blinked in confusion. "...Okay I'll bite, what exactly was that for?" "Did you forget what we will do after you meet Satan?" asked Lilith. " Oh, how could I forget?...But I need you take me to Alice afterwards as soon as possible." he replied, so set on redemption he had almost forgotten his prior commitments. "Very well," said Lilith. Three Hours Later Echo and Lilith walked down the stairs of Satan's Palace, done with their carnal needs. "Alright, you wish to go to Karakura Town, that's easy, you want me to come with?" asked Lilith. "I suppose, if you don't have any more 'appointments' to take care of." replied Echo, glancing over. "Well, me and Lucifer have an appointment, and I don't think I could walk away from something like that," said Lilith. Echo stopped and turned to her, folding his arms. "He'll be using you until the end of time if he has his way, so why not go on a mission with me while that's still possible?" "No thank you, you obviously never slept with Lucifer, and I know you want to," teased Lilith, "Besides, I love that guy..." He couldn't supress a shiver and cringe when the thought of even being closer than two feet to Lucifer. "Now I won't be able eat for days, ugh." Echo shook his head. "And why exactly? You could spontaneously explode and be gone forever, and he wouldn't care in the least." Lilith opened a portal for Echo. She then walked away. Echo jumped into the portal without hesitation, sooner or later she'd wake up and realize that she only has one real friend. Besides, if she didn't really care, then why would she offer to come in the first place? You are so Old, Father Williams... Alice was walking back to school, when her cell phone rang, she looked at it to see it was PsykoReaper. "Hello?" asked Alice. "Where...are...you?" asked PsykoReaper. "Walking from school," said Alice. "Where is that?" asked PsykoReaper. "You know damn well where it is, Psyko, you walked me there once!" groaned Alice. "...Well...fine, when you get home, dinner will be ready, I am microwaving a metal pot full of soup!" "You can't pu-" before she could finish, PsykoReaper hung up, "Crazy wackjob!" Echo landed gracefully from the portal, turning around to see Alice. He said nothing as his pupils became an evil-filled green and his sclera pitch black. "What do you want?" asked Alice, as she turned into her soul reaper form. Echo breathed deeply as he stormed towards her, drawing his blade, fittingly named Kaosu. Its ancient inscriptions began to radiate green energy as always, whispers of the long dead raising as he made a simple gesture, initiating his newly obtained Hand of Isis spell. Alice runs at Echo, with her blade roaring. Without even a twitch Echo had executed three pin-point strikes on the joints connecting Alice's legs and one of her arms to her torso. "With enchantment each strike severs a quarter of your spiritual energy, a fourth would cause an emergency adrenaline rush of life energy, which would kill you very fast after a series of painful attempts to breathe." Alice fell on the ground, suddenly, she was covered in a red orb, and that orb created a giant spider connected to the orb. It screeched and stabbed Echo in the stomach with it's leg. Echo narrowed his eyes and refrained from letting out a wince, instead running his aura covered sword across his wound and transferring the stolen quarters of spiritual energy into life energy. He vanished without a trail reappearing on the creature's head. He took a deep stance and plunged his sword into te creature until it's handle and his hand were enveloped near completely. He then ripped upwards with all his might, creating a fairly large gash on it's back before diving inside the creature, sword first. The spider screeched and a torrent of venom exploded from the gash, pushing Echo out and sending him flying. Echo landed ackwardly but rolled into a a crouch, covered in innards. His horrific eyes glowed brightly as he pointed his index and middle fingers towards the creature's head, sending a wisp-like trail of corruptive smoke at its eyes. It blinded the creature long enough for Echo to charge and leap under it's thorax, piercing the scarlet orb and grabbing Alice as he blasted through te other side, this time landing a bit more elegantly. Alice woke up a little bit later, but had a blanket to cover her. She looked to see Echo. "What are they going to do to me?" asked Alice. Echo's eyes were filled with sorrow but his face showed no care. "I cannot even speak of the wretchedness that is planned for you, so please don't remind me of what I am helping to accomplish." "You tell me what, or I'll kill myself right here," said Alice, gripping her zanpakuto, "Whatever it is, death would hastily want me away, I bet..." He couldn't help but let a smirk slip out. "Alright, I'd hate to see someone so optimistic about life go to waste." He then frowned. "Satan plans on having offspring with you to create a being with the inheritance of two of the great deities." "Why would you wish that of me?" asked Alice. "I don't." He remarked simply. "Then why are you doing this!!!" screamed Alice. He whirled and faced her, the flames of pure agony and rage erupting almost literally from his eyes. "Because of people like you who inspire sympathy in a heart hat doesn't seek it! I don't want to show mercy, let my guard down, or even love. I want power, glory, and respect!" He lied completely. "Doing this will silence any pathetic emotion I have left!" He roared. "Why would you want that?" asked Alice. "You have no idea what it's like to be robbed of a chilhood, having the few things you care about ripped away, and forced to fight to keep any pieces of yourself you have left. I won't let it ever happen again." He said, resuming his unnatural calmness. Alice looked down on the ground. "You weren't raped..." For a moment Echo was speechless, but he swallowed his contempt and spoke. "I am sorry." He said, not sure what he was going to do from there. "No one deserves that kind of pain." "Are you still going to take me, to relive those events with someone else?" asked Alice. "I'm not about to fail this mission out of pity, why should I even believe you or care?" He retaliated, a cold sincerity in his voice. "Hm, I bet you would want to join in, if you were really cold hearted!" hissed Alice.